In a slightly embarassing turn of events, I just recently found a folder of emails from my “readers”.

Full disclosure here.. while I have glanced at my blog’s stats a few times over the years, I typically operate under the assumption that only my parents and in-laws read it.

So, now that I’m aware that I am, in fact, a famous lifestyle influencer whose inbox had a whopping 52 items (counting the Spam), I’m going to pick a few questions/comments out of your messages to answer/address (without posting the entire message) so that I can hopefully help those of you who don’t know me personally to understand me a little bit better!

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Q: Hi.

A: Hey!

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Q: What does D do for a living? What did he do before?

A: Daniel is a Civil Engineer for the Department of Transportation. I’m not sure what you mean by “before” as he has been working towards becoming a licensed engineer for the past few years. With Civil Engineering, you get your degree and then must take a test called the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE). Once you pass the FE, you have to work under a licensed engineer for four years. After the four years is up, you have to take and pass the Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam (PE) and submit all of the necessary documentation to your state’s licensure board and, once approved, they mail you your certificate. He got his a few months ago! I’m so, so very proud of him and how hard he has worked to get to where he is in his field.

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Q: Needing a family update!

A: We’re all good, sorry! Life has been a bit hectic lately, actually. Evie had a bout of RSV and D has been working super late the past few weeks so I’m more tired than usual and yes, that is the excuse that I’m going with for slacking here. I’ll do better!

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Q: Thinking you should add recipes to this blog!

A: Yes, agreed! The only problem I have with that is taking pictures as I go. When I’m cooking I usually have “help” so there is almost always a mess. And, to be honest, I’m getting to the point where I don’t know where my phone is most of the time when we’re home.

My kids snatch it.

Loving the fact you’re assuming I’m a good cook, by the way. Thanks for that!

But stay tuned, I’ll do my best to diversify content.. either tomorrow or 10-12 years from now.

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Q: Can’t believe you got married in college, wow. You and your husband seem to have a good thing, it’s very nice to see and I like how honest you are about your relationship.

A: RIGHT? Yes, we got married super young. But when you know, you know! Sometimes I worry that I might get a little too honest and make you all wince from the sappiness ha! We feel like some people go their whole lives without finding what we have, so we are very thankful that we not only found each other, but that we did find each other so young.

See, there I go again with the sapppp!

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Q: Lee is my favorite person! Who is this guy getting this stuff from? I feel like we would be friends.

Lee is literally everyone’s BEST friend, so I’m sure you would be ha! He just absorbs absolutely everything that anyone and everyone says in like a five mile radius.

Now, how he manages to use it all correctly in conversations, I really don’t know. I didn’t realize how strange it was for him to say so much so early until we had Evie, honestly. She speaks well (and is obviously very intelligent), but when she needs to fill space, she will just babble – – while I don’t ever remember Lee babbling. He has always been advanced in the art of conversation.

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Q: Honestly – – how hard is the transition from one child to two?

A: You sound like me! I promise you, I asked my Mom and Momma-In-Law this so many times when I was pregnant with Evie. Honestly — it is a lot. But like everything else in parenthood, and life, you get used to it.

And once you’re used to it, it’s fine.

It’s still a lot, but it’s fine.

Once you come to the realization that you aren’t perfect and your kids aren’t perfect, and you just start going with the flow and living your life the best way you know how to live it, it’s actually pretty great. Even on the days when I hate the sound of my own voice because I’ve been yelling all day and the house is a wreck and I am literally raging, I wouldn’t trade having my babies for anything.

If you already have one, you know.. they’re like literal pieces of your heart walking around on the Earth with you.

If it is something you and your partner want to do, and it makes sense for your family unit, I say go for it. I don’t think having a child is ever something you could come to regret… they’re truly gifts.

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Q: Tell us something annoying about your Daniel. You paint him in such a positive light.

A: Well I mean, I AM obsessed with him, but let me think.

Hmm…. GOT IT!

Okay, so I wouldn’t say this is annoying, exactly, but it does tend to make me roll my eyes at him.

The man is physically incapable of finishing one task before starting another.

For example, let me give you a rundown of D’s typical yard work routine:

He begins mowing the yard and notices a small tree out in the pasture. He stops mowing, goes and gets his chainsaw and cuts the tree down. Drags the tree off to a ditch and puts the chainsaw on the front porch. Notices weeds growing through the gravel driveway. Goes and mixes weedkiller and fills the spreader thing-y on the back of the fourwheeler and comes back to the driveway. Sprays weeds. Parks fourwheeler. Resumes mowing yard. Notices all of the grass clippings and thinks he should spread some of them on a patch of dirt in the backyard. Stops mowing. Gets the trailer hooked up to the fourwheeler and comes back around to load grass clippings with a shovel. Spreads grass clippings on dirt. Parks trailer. Parks fourwheeler. Resumes mowing. Finishes mowing. Decides to cut down more trees. Realizes he forgot to weedeat. Puts chainsaw back down. Goes and gets weedeater. Weedeats. Puts weedeater away. Comes back to cut down random trees. Etc. Etc. Etc.

**** I’m truly grateful for the number of positive comments in my blog’s inbox (and now that I know the folder is there, I’ll be better about checking it) compared to the negatives I received and I just want to say… if you have dropped me a line/comment/bible verse over the years.. I did read them all and I appreciate you. Thank you for reading what sometimes feels like my journal and not thinking I’m crazy.

xxx A